"You couldn't do that in the city?"
"Not to our liking, no. We treasure our privacy. If there aren't any other questions..."
"We're going to unload our tons and be on our way within the hour," the guy said proudly as he turned toward the side. It reminded me of barroom behavior just before swinging a punch. "Just stay on your side of the pad and we shouldn't have any trouble. But if I were you," he said, spinning back to look me in the eye. "I'd hide your candy."
As he walked away, Strawberry asked what that meant. "He means you," I explained. "You are the candy. And the rest of the girls. I'm taking it that his crew are low life scum like we encountered in the city. They’ll come looking for your attention and force me to bust some heads, or worse."
"Kash, I can't say that I've enjoyed my experience on planets so far. Can we reconsider our obligation to these dragons? Wouldn't they be happier back where they came from?"
"I believe that they would," I answered, taking no offense. Their needs had definitely become a nuisance. "But that will be their choice. We owe them our lives. We can tolerate more of this for a while. Overall, everything is great compared to being stuck with a broken-down ship."
"That is true."
I returned back inside to keep a close eye on the unloading activity, as well as follow the dragons' locations. They were much farther than I had hoped. Considering our temporary neighbors, that might actually be a good thing though. I wouldn't want Gako and Dawynda to return while the supply ship was still here. However, if they saw our visitors, they might think that we needed their assistance and hurry back.
Nothing much happened for the next thirty minutes. Then the man that had not bothered to introduce himself came back our way. He kept glancing off to his left nervously. That was the direction that our giant flying lizards had gone. I rushed downstairs to meet him outside before he could reach our door.
"Hey," he said, looking much less confrontational. "I just thought you should know that we received a warning for this area. Apparently, there is some kind of animal attack over there by the pig farms. We're almost done here so we'll be leaving soon. I suggest that you do the same."
"Animal attack?" I didn’t have to feign surprise. "What kind of predator is it?"
"I don't know," he said over his shoulder as he walked away. "But it must be scary for these people to be acting the way they are. I've never heard of anything like it. We only have a dozen kinds of animals on this planet, and none of them have ever provided a scare like this before."
Fuck! Again, fuck! These dragons were more trouble than they were worth. I would say that I was tempted to leave them there, but I wasn't. I was way too committed of a friend to do that. Because if I did leave them, they probably wouldn't live long. The only source of food would be near these five cities, and the citizens there wouldn't put up with dragons eating their livestock for long.
Just to add to my problems, I could see the distinct form of two dragons approaching from the farmland. They were racing back to us, possibly with hot pursuit in their tails, considering the news flash that I just received.
"What in the black holes of hell is that?" the supply ship captain yelled.
"Dragons," I told him calmly. "You better get your men safely inside now. Once they return to our ship, we'll launch, and the danger will be gone."
"You brought these beasts with you?" the man looked outraged. "Is this why you wanted privacy?"
"They'll be here in twenty seconds," I told the man intimidatingly.
He raced off toward the entrance to his ship, screaming for the attention of his workers. I spotted a total crew of five people since they landed. Hopefully, they would follow my instructions and avoid any confusion on the part of Gako and Dawynda. Losing livestock was one thing. Having human citizens killed was quite another.
"What have you done?" I asked angrily of my large, winged friends when they landed on the tarmac.
"What do you mean?" Dawynda asked. "We have been enjoying the outdoors like you told us to do. Did we go too far away?"
"Yes!" I lost my tempter, which wasn't recommended with beasts that could so easily devour you. "And you attacked these people's livestock!"
"I don't know what live stock is," the big female dragon responded defensively. "We did eat two each of a strange fat beast that were trapped in some kind of squared off area. They weren't much of a challenge to catch, but they were incredibly delicious. We should really get more for aboard the ship. Even you humans will like them, I think. Maybe not raw though. You’ll need to cut them into strips for your strange food servers to cook."
"Bacon!" I blurted out. "Yes, bacon is delicious, but those animals belong to someone else. We can’t just take them or eat them at will. They must be bought first."
"I do not understand," she said. Then Gako roared behind her.
All five men of the supply ship were coming in our direction, and they each had a rifle in their hands. Shit just kept getting worse.
I heard Strawberry and the other girls all approaching from behind me. I glanced quick enough to see the redhead carrying a rifle, Cinnamon with the pistol and Teddy with the electro gun. Then Mixi took to flight from the rear with her magic bow in her hand.
"We don't want any trouble," I told the riflemen. On a gameboard, we had to look like the stronger force. However, their
