Mortaga was having a good time. She had always liked caves, and this one was no exception. Indeed, it was one of the better ones she had encountered over the years, she decided. In fact, as she pranced along lightly, she was having a wonderful time. Although, she had to admit that the one thing she didn't like about caves was the darkness.

The darkness in this one was all-engulfing, completely consuming. It had a sort of thickness to it that only darkness can possess, and Mortaga didn't like it one bit. It oozed.

But who cared? There was plenty of other stuff to enjoy!

Mortaga stopped suddenly in her tracks. A rather frightening rumble was coming from directly in front of her, and growing closer.

Nervously, she looked about. By the not-so-very-bright light of her ice, she couldn't see a thing. Not even the walls of the cave.

Suddenly all enjoyment of the cave faded away into feat. All-consuming, mind freezing terror - the kind that sends you into a state of blind survival instinct.

Mortaga ran. She ran like she had never run before. She ran like a blizzard, like a whirling tornado, but still the rumbling drew closer.

It was going to catch her.

Mortaga could feel her legs screaming of oxygen, her lungs screaming for more air, the air around whipping past so fast she could barely breathe.

But still the thing drew closer.

The exit was in sight as she flew through the passage, she was going to make it!

Well, she would have made it if she hadn't tripped over Squee. The little Serake has been ambling happily along the path, blithely following Mortaga's scent without a thought to spare for the large yellow thing rumbling towards her at high speed.

Mortaga plunged face-first into the snow, burying herself up to the shoulders. For a moment she lay still, stunned, but quickly recovered her senses and pulled herself up.

Unfortunately for her, by that time it was far too late.

Two Things stood over her, one pointing at her and the other at Squee. The little creature was lying on her back - flipped over by the impact with Mortaga - waving her legs in the air in a rather pathetic fashion. Mortaga lay in the snow, defeated, as the Things stood there, apparently unsure what to do.

After a few tense minutes during which Squee squeaked and waved her legs in the air, the Things suddenly moved. The one next to Squee reached down and, grasping the Serake by the tail, lifted her in the air.

The effect was immediate.

Squee squealed and bit violently at the Thing grasping her. The Thing yelled and dropped her, then ran for the yellow rumbling thing - all the while emitting a hissing noise from where Squee had bitten it. Mortaga supposed it was some kind of pain response. She was also quite proud to note that her pet had actually made a hole in the Thing's silver skin.

Squee, her job done, crawled on to Mortaga's side and curled up there, purring happily. Mortaga would have rolled her eyes if the situation were not so downright petrifying.

The Thing that Squee had bitten soon returned, however, apparently sporting what appeared to be a whole new skin.

This skin was, instead of being silver, a kind of metallic shiny green and was hard around where the Thing's feet were.

Mortaga suddenly felt defeated. If these Things could change their skins at will, how were the Yirini ever to drive them from their planet? A cold feeling of failure threatened to overwhelm her.

The thing with the new skin grew closer and finally arrived, stepping quite hard as if it were angry. After a lot of flailing their arms, the two Things leant forward again. This time one grabbed Squee's tail and the other took her head, holding her mouth shut.

Squee agin thrashed about, trying be best to get away from these things - to get back to Mortaga.

Pure, unbridled rage swirled beneath Mortaga's scales. How dare they? If they were going to take Squee, they were darned well going to take her too or it would be over her dead body.

Suddenly she flew at the things, biting scratching and kicking. She put up a brave fight, but in the end size, strength and numbers overcame her. A quick blow to the small dent in Mortaga's back, and she was out cold.

#

Angetuga woke up again with a pounding head and a terrible nausea. She moaned and rolled on to one side, her gut twisting and writhing painfully inside her.

Whatever it was, that stuff can't have been good.

Moaning once again and retching slightly, Angetuga decided that moving was probably not the most prudent course of action.

Oh no... oh dear...

Leaning forward, Angetuga vomited spectacularly - or rather retched spectacularly because she brought up absolutely nothing other than a great deal of the clear liquid.

Angetuga shuffled away from the stuff, eager not to be sick again, and waited for the nausea to pass.

As she waited, the liquid that was still dripping from the tube suddenly changed colour and began to drip a little faster. Whatever this new stuff was, it smelt terrible. Quite acidic and generally nasty. Whatever it was, Angetuga was glad she hadn't swallowed any of it; the very smell made her head spin and feel fogged up.

To her surprise, quickly after the colour changed, the dripping stopped all-together. At least that was one small mercy, now she wouldn't have to bear much more of the smell.

Something moved in the corner of her eye and Angetuga stood up in a flash; it was a human, and quite a large one at that.

Well, more along the lines of a tall one really. It was tall, thin and wiry and was covered with little wrinkles.

These humans were nothing like the ones she had seen down on the planet and in her dreams; the ones she had sen before had shiny skin. These ones were pink with white flappy bits dangling off them and fibres dangling out of their heads. As far as Angetuga was concerned, they were singularly repulsive. They didn't even have scales!

This particular human had brown fibres dangling off his head that went down to its shoulders and were gathered back behind his head; it had white dangly bits encircling it's legs and torso with a small blue thing with the symbols 'EARTH SPACE AGENCY' on it. How unusual. It also persisted to stare at the floor. At least, Angetuga presumed those moving circles in it's head were it's eyes.

The human approached her pod, all the while continuing to stare at the floor. Angetuga stepped back, fighting dizziness; these things were dangerous and she didn't want to get too close.

It muttered a series of garbled sounds, all the while staring at the floor. Uh-oh, it seemed to have spotted the tube...

After a moment of staring at the tube, the thing looked up slowly and it's eyes fixed rigidly in Angetuga. This didn't seem good.

Wait. All this, all of this, was all that thing's fault!

Growling in anger, Angetuga rushed at the creature in front of her.

That creature had, in the time Angetuga had been staring at it, taken out a flat clipboard and begun scribbling fast.

Angetuga was soon upon it, scratching, kicking, biting; determined to do as much damage as possible. This thing had taken her whole life! It deserved everything it got.

One violent thump to its head soon had the creature unconscious and Angetuga dragged herself off it, trying to restrain the anger and rage that was boiling inside her.

Once she had managed to cool off a little Angetuga felt slightly guilty. The thing was still moving though; it would be fine. Taking deep breaths to steady her nerves, Angetuga thought about what she would do next.

Maybe, just maybe, she was still on Yirin after all?

#

Mortangris was floating... it was a nice feeling. Floating and feee, not restrained by anything. The world around him was dark and cool and comfortable, just right. Occasionally whispered voices disturbed him, but who cared about them? They were annoying, but they soon went.

"How is he doing?" Well, speak of the devil.

"Not well." Who were they talking about? It didn't really matter anyway.

"If that brother of his doesn't get back soon, he's dead."

"Well, we can just keep trying." Well, whoever it was, it sounded like things were going to be absolutely wonderful for them.

The voices didn't seem to talk for a while. Well, they'd gone.

"Ha." A different voice... oh fine, just barge in here while I'm trying to sleep. Great. Wonderful. Terrific. Just what Mortangris needed right now. "Sounds like things aren't going well for you, bad luck bringer. Well, I'm going to ensure you don't bring any more curses on our village! Hah!" The voice receded into the distance.

Can you kindly buzz off now, please?

Mortangris resumed peacefully floating in his peaceful void.

#

Ooog. Ouch. Mortaga's head really hurt. A lot. What had happened? Where was she?

She opened her eyes and shut them again straight away. It was far too bright.

Well, what a really great sign.

She shook her head around and opened her eyes again. Better.

She was in a strange glass pod. One side was made of something see through, and one was opaque white.

There were many pods nearby, each one containing a separate Yirinu.

In the one directly opposite was Mortangar, slumped against the wall.

"Mortangar! MORTANGAR! Wake up, you brick-head!" Mortaga bawled, but Mortangar didn't move. Well, that worked.

Wait. He was slumped against the wall. Was he dead?

"Mortangar! Are you dead?" She demanded, before realising that even if he were awake, he wouldn't be able to hear her. Very bright, Mortaga. Very bright.

He was dead! She didn't know how she knew, but she just did. How could he? What a time to pick! Mortaga felt herself grow angry. Mortangar always was so stupid. Correction; Motangar had always been so stupid...

Mortaga felt her anger melt away and she started to cry quietly in a corner.

But wait a minute, he was moving! He wasn't dead! Mortaga could have danced with relief and happiness.

She looked over at him as he shook his head around.

Suddenly an idea popped into her head and she breathed on the wall, then began to write.

ARE YOU DEAD

She wrote.

Mortangar quickly followed her lead.

NO

He answered.

WHAT A LEAP OF INTELLIGENCE

Mortaga replied sarcastically. I do love sarcasm, don't you...

Yes, okay. Fine. Seriously...

NO NEED FOR THAT

Mortangar shot back.

I THINK THERE IS YOU IDIOT I THOUGHT YOU'D DIED

Mortaga rolled her eyes at Mortangar's response.

STARTED CARING NOW HAVE WE?

He wrote.

NO

Mortaga grinned.

Mortangar didn't reply, and turned his back to her. Ah well, arguing with him had been fun...

For some inexplicable reason, Mortaga began to feel guilty about the way she treated him. She was so mean sometimes, it simply wasn't nice...

SORRY

She scribbled on the wall and it faded off slowly, never to be read. How bright, Mortaga. That totally wasn't a waste of time.

Mortaga began to fiddle with her tail in boredom. There was nothing to do here. She jabbed her finger down hard on her tail tip and spiked herself. Ow.

Wait, when did she get a tail spike? Her tail had always been spectacularly blunt before now.

Something definitely wasn't right here...

She began to run in circles for no reason at all. Maybe it was because it was the one thing she really felt she shouldn't do. Nothing seemed to happen.

Fine, try something else she didn't think she should do. How about... jumping? She jumped violently with no effect.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING IDIOT

Something was definitely wrong here. Mortangar never insulted her, she insulted Mortangar.

So, ignoring Mortangar's lovely message, she carried on jumping. Still no effect. Ah well, what now...

She tried running in circles again to no effect other than falling over and accidentally sticking her claw up her nose. Lovely.

She must have gotten some dust up it or something, she decided, as she felt a sneeze build up.

STOP THAT

Mortangar scribbled, but Mortaga paid no attention. Mortangar was annoying anyway.

Ah... ah... ah-TISHOO!!!

A huge sneeze overtook her and she jolted forward violently.

Ugh... she felt dizzy... what was Mortangar tap dancing for?

"Stop... that... now..." she offered woozily with no response.

The world around her began to spin, and slowly everything faded to black.

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🦅—Aquila