Grot hated people as much as he did. That’s why they got along so well.
He could still remember that day he visited the exchange on his usual trip to check if any mistreated animals were up for sale there. He usually made the trip whenever he visited the port city.
It was a ritual.
And every time he went, he was guaranteed to find an animal there that was abused in some way.
He couldn’t save all of them, but at least he tried. And he would keep trying.
If there’d been someone like him out there doing the same when he was a chid, then maybe he’d have had a better life. Maybe he’d have been found in that same market.
Grot had been in that market many orbits back, abused and stolen from his home planet.
He had been put up for sale as a hunting animal and Riv was sure what would have become of the little beast.
They’d have worked Grot to the ground, hardly fed him, then he’d have been left for dead when he could work no longer.
He knew, for it’s what had almost happened to him.
So he’d bought the little black thing, despite how it had snarled at him, and despite how it had growled, its four eyes watching him warily the entire time he’d traveled back to the Sanctuary.
It had hated him.
It took many turns for Grot to trust him and once that trust had been established, the tevsi never left his side.
So, why in Polvrak’s name was Grot acting like that with the female?
Had years on the Sanctuary made him soft?
He could see how that would happen. They hadn’t had much contact with anyone since he’d brought the animal so far out to live.
Maybe Grot had forgotten his hatred for strangers.
The only contact they both had with beings that weren’t the animals on the Sanctuary was contact with his younger brother, Sohut, and the occasional visit from his one and only friend, Ka’Cit.
In a short space of time, this female had entered his Sanctuary, changed the place with her scent and had even gotten Grot to like her somehow.
It had to be her scent.
They liked her scent.
Riv swallowed hard as he walked.
He only knew that because her scent still lingered in his nose even now.
Heading to the tilgran enclosure, he entered their pen and slammed the gate shut. The animals lifted their long necks to look down at him, as if he was being aggressive.
“I’m not,” he muttered, grabbing the tool he used to shovel their feces.
The tilgrans still looked down at him, blinking slowly. “Look at me like that and I’ll leave you to shovel your own dung.”
The animals turned away, ignoring him.
As he went about the chore, Riv frowned.
The animals better not get used to having anyone else around. People couldn’t be trusted.
If his brother, Sohut, hadn’t left the sanctuary on some business, the female would be in his hovercar heading back to Geblit immediately.
He’d take her now. Right now. Only, he couldn’t leave the Sanctuary unattended without planning first.
The animals needed him.
The umus alone would make such a racket, they would be heard for miles if they didn’t get fed on time.
Glancing back toward the building he’d left the female in, Riv shoveled harder.
Despite that she’d been spending most of her time inside, he was still very aware of her presence.
Just what had Geblit been thinking, dropping her off without warning him first?
If he had known it was a female in that box—heck, if he had known it was an intelligent being, he’d have turned Geblit away, favor or not.
With an angry grunt, he piled the dung he’d shoveled in a bucket and hauled the receptacle from the tilgran enclosure.
One of the tilgrans swooped its long neck to bump its head against his back and Riv growled.
At the sound, the animal hummed softly.
“Yea, I’m angry at you too,” Riv muttered, locking the enclosure behind him.
As a matter of fact, he was angry at everything.
Females were…
Poison.
The image of his mother materialized in his mind and Riv squeezed the handle on the bucket as he moved toward the fruit fields. He couldn’t quite remember what his mor looked like, just bits and pieces.
Frowning even more, he pushed the memory of her from his mind and continued walking.
The tilgran dung would make great fertilizer for the plants in the fruit field. The tilgrans were the only animals in the Sanctuary whose dung could do that. All the others was too devoid of any valuable nutrients and was only good for fire light.
Glancing behind him as he moved, he saw no sign of the female and that was good. Grot probably had her busy. He knew the tevsi wouldn’t hurt her, and he wouldn’t have allowed him to.
But it seemed Grot had come to his own conclusion about the female after he’d sniffed her out and found her worthy of his trust.
So quick to trust.
Grot had clearly been on the Sanctuary’s lands for far too long.
The tevsi had forgotten.
But he wouldn’t forget. He’d never forget.
Not when he bore the scars to remember…not when his nights were a constant fight because the dreams would come.
It had been years but that didn’t dim the pain of the events that played like videos in his mind at moments when he tried to forget or tried to rest.
It was there all the time, reminding him.
As he trudged through the fields, the tall yellow-orange grass swaying around him, the serenity of his surroundings was the only thing that helped calm him.
It was why he was so far out, why he stayed away from people. The calm helped.
It helped a little.
Even now, alone in the middle of nowhere, memories threatened to break through his resolve.
He could see his mor, his mother, the first woman he’d trusted…and the one who had hurt him the most. She appeared before him again like an annoying specter.
He’d been just a chid when she’d sold
