Book3. Samantha - The bog 2

Book3. Samantha - The bog 2
“Thank you,” he said before starting up the hill, and I followed right behind him, checking to make sure Lake was alright.
She was still asleep, and there were no signs that she had been hurt when I fell, but I couldn’t say the same for myself. My temple was throbbing painfully, and my shoulder was sore from where the rock had struck me.
“Wait up!” I called out as he quickly made his way up, leaving me behind.
But he didn’t stop until he reached the top. I could see from his posture how scared he was, but despite his fear, he was in a hurry to return to his people.
While Ulrus had told me all about the predators on this planet, he had failed to tell me about the native races, and I was about to walk blindly into a dangerous situation with Lexi’s baby.
There was always the possibility that there was no danger and that he was making everything up to lure me to some secluded spot and kill me, but he could have done that while I was on the ground. And I had seen the raw panic in his green gaze when he told me about his mother and sister, as well as the pain he was still refusing to allow himself to feel when he revealed what had happened to his father.
“What’s your name?” I asked him when I finally reached him. Catching up with him had left me breathless, a reminder of how much the time I’d spent in the CCC had taken a toll on my physical strength.
He tilted his head to the side like a cat before replying, “Avu.”
A soft smile spread across my lips. “I’m Samantha,” I told him.
“Sssamantha,” he repeated, testing the sound of my name on his tongue, and I noticed it was split in two, like that of a snake. His wasn’t the only species that dragged out the s sound, as other alien races did the same.
“And this is Lake,” I added as I showed him the baby, whom he hadn’t noticed until now.
He studied her for a moment, 
“Ssshe’ss beautiful. Yoursss?”
“A friend’s,” I replied before realizing that I shouldn’t give him too much information in case this turned out to be an ambush. My fingers brushed against the gun, wanting to make sure it was still in its holster.
He looked at the baby, then down the hill, and my eyes followed the direction of his gaze. My stomach dropped at what I saw on the other side—a massive bog stretching out before us. From where we stood, I could see several villages scattered across the land, all of them engulfed in flames.
“Oh, no,” I breathed. “Who could have done this?”
Avu shook his head in quiet resignation before replying, “I don’t know. I’ve never ssseen thossse kind of warriorsss before. Their weapons are nothing like the bows and arrowsss or slingsss we use. Their arrowsss are like fire, burning the flesssh where they ssstrike.”
The more he talked, the more he dragged out the s sounds, making me think he usually did that when he was nervous. Despite looking like an adult at first glance, I was sure he was barely a teenager—a very frightened one.
For a fleeting moment, a terrifying thought crossed my mind—that the ones who had attacked Avu’s people were soldiers from the base. But it made no sense. They were men who had vowed to protect all races from the So’oks. Unless Avu and his people were considered a threat, but he hadn’t given me the impression of someone who wanted to hurt me.
Despite the distance between us and the villages, frightened screams reached us, goosebumps erupting all over my skin as a chill ran down my spine. On the horizon, I saw several spaceships, and I clenched my fists, now certain that the ones committing such atrocities were the soldiers.
And at that moment, I hated every man on the base because I was convinced that every single one of them knew about this and no one had done a thing to protect these poor people.
Fury like I hadn’t felt in a very long time surged through my veins as I grabbed Avu’s hand and dragged him after me while I headed down the hill, determined to march right into the nearest village and demand an explanation from the soldiers.
“We need to be careful,” Avu tried to warn me, but I barely heard him. Anger fueled me, driving me forward as I was determined to put an end to whatever was going on.
The bog smelled faintly of rotten eggs and fish, but it didn’t bother me. I had smelled worse. As we got closer to the nearest village—which happened to be the one Avu lived in—I caught my first glimpse of the soldiers, and quickly realized the huge mistake I’d made in assuming they were from the base.
They were So’oks.
“Duck!” I hissed, dragging Avu behind a large rock just in time to avoid being seen.
So’oks.
On Azuron.
And so very close to the base.
I had to let Commander Driann know about this. As much as I wanted to help Avu, fighting the So’oks on my own would be pure suicide.
Lake was starting to show signs of waking up, and I knew that if she started crying, we were screwed. The So’oks would find us right away.
“We need to go,” I told Avu.
He gave me a look full of sorrow. “What about my mother and sssissster?”
I hated the idea of disappointing him, but it was better than acting recklessly and getting ourselves spotted. We had been lucky so far that the enemy hadn’t noticed us approaching the village, but from what I had seen before we hid behind the rock, the So’oks’ focus was on the women and children they were forcing onto a spaceship, probably to take them away from Azuron.
Even with proper help, I wasn’t sure if anything could be done for Avu’s village—or what was left of it—but at least the soldiers on the base could prevent this from happening again.
“We can’t do anything for them right now. We need to find Nick and Ulrus,” I said, talking mostly absentmindedly.
“Nick? Ulrusss?” Avu asked in a low voice, mirroring mine. “I sssaw them earlier heading to Sssleepy Fallsss.”
“Sleepy Falls?” I repeated, wondering if I’d heard him correctly.
Avu looked concerned. “They ssshouldn’t go there. Dangerousss place. That’sss why I didn’t go after them to ask for help.”
It didn’t actually surprise me. Ulrus had given me the impression that he would get into trouble at the first opportunity.
“Let’s find them,” I told Avu, who reluctantly nodded, and we crawled out of the bog. By some small mercy, we weren’t spotted by the So’oks, nor did Lake wake up until we were far enough from the village that the enemy couldn’t hear her.

The next update should be in a couple of days.