Book3. Samantha - The Sleepy Falls 2

Book3. Samantha - The Sleepy Falls 2
“Every four lunar circlesss, a big hunt is organized by the eldersss of the entire Bog,” Avu started telling me while keeping an eye on the nearest plants. “During those hunts, instead of coming here, the huntersss who proved themselvesss before all the vilagesss go to the plain close to the ssswamp, where the herds of tussskksss live. The day wasss going well, but out of nowhere, Meoorines appeared.”
Azuron had an abundance of wildlife, which made me wonder if anyone had ever bothered to catalogue every living species on the planet. While I wasn’t a biologist, I had taken several classes about wildlife across the Confederation while I was at university, and if given the chance, I would be more than happy to create a glossary of all the animals on this planet.
“Meoorines?” I asked. “What are those?”
“They live in the Great Smoky Mountain to the Sssouth. My people and them have alwaysss been at war, but having wingsss makesss them fassster and more agile, and unfortunately, many Uqrozes have fallen prey to them,” Avu replied.
Uqrozes was probably what his kind were called.
Quite a few different races of native aliens must have lived on Azuron. 
After he jumped onto the next rock, he added, “Sssometimesss, they sssteal the femalesss and take them high up the mountain to breed with them, sssince mossst of their femalesss died. The Great Sssicknesssss didn’t took that many of our femalesss. Sssome great huntersss alssso died.”
The Great Sickness must have been a reference to the virus that killed so many women across galaxies. 
I waited for a rock above me to move closer before grumbling, “That’s horrible. Someone should stop the Meoorines.”
“Nick and Ulrusss are trying to do that. During the lassst tusssksss hunt, they were fissshing nearby, and when the Meoorinesss flew down from the mountain, they came to help.” His voice grew quieter as he added, “They even sssaved my brother’sss life.”
I barely heard him over the roaring water.
“I’m sorry for what happened to your family. And while your father and brother are gone, I will make sure nothing of this sort ever happens to anyone else again,” I promised.
But it felt like a lie, because until the So’oks were defeated, these kinds of things would keep happening.
Avu pressed his lips together before revealing, “That day, the village adopted Nick and Ulrusss, and we came to think of them as two of our own. In my culture, when you sssave the life of a Uqroze, a part of the sssoul of the perssson you sssaved now livesss inssside you. My mother became very fond of Ulrusss, essspecially after he almossst died sssaving my brother.”
“Oh no,” I breathed as I jumped onto the rock above. “What happened?”
“A Meoorine wasss flying above my brother. Right before the ssstrong talonsss of the Meoorine sssank into my brother’sss ssshouldersss, Ulrusss pussshed him to the ssside. The Meoorine, enraged, viciousssly attacked Ulrusss, leaving deep gassshesss on hisss back, and Nick put an arrow through his neck,” Avu explained, not realizing that with each word he said, my heart sank more and more. “It took Mother almossst a week to patch Ulrusss up before he could return to hisss houssse, dessspite the village offering him and Nick a hut of their own.” A small pause followed before he added, pride lacing his tone, “Mother isss the bessst medicine female in the entire Bog.”
The idea of Ulrus having been injured so badly that it had taken him a week to return to the base bothered me more than I liked. After all, I was nowhere near ready to consider giving our marriage a real shot, but learning about him through others was helping me see who he really was.
When he was spending time with me, he might as well have been putting on an act and trying to trick me. But I was more interested in who he was when he interacted with others.
Rock by rock, jump after careful jump, we got closer to reaching the mountain’s plateau.
“So, Nick and Ulrusss come here to hunt because they are basically family. They are Uqrozes,” I said.
“Yesss,” Avu hissed as he took one last long jump.
He landed perfectly on the plateau and waited for me to do the same.
It should have been a simple jump. The rock wasn’t even floating that far from the mountain, but when I landed, my foot came down on a patch of wet moss covering the stones. One of the cascades was only a few feet away, keeping the rocks slick with water. My left leg slipped out from under me, and a sharp pain shot up my leg as I hit the ground stomach first.
A moment later, I was sliding down the mountain toward the dark water below, where the aquatic monster was waiting for its next meal. I tried to grab onto anything that might slow my fall, but the backpack on my back was pulling me down.
“Sssamantha!” Avu yelled as he lunged forward and reached for my hand.
By some small mercy of the Universe, he grabbed my right hand midair, delaying my death.
The truth was that Avu wasn’t strong enough to pull me up, and if he didn’t let go, we would both die. It wasn’t just me guessing that he didn’t have the necessary strength to lift me. I could see it in his gaze and in the way he panicked as strained grunts left him.
Death was scary, but knowing that Avu would survive made the thought of it a little easier to accept. 
So, I did the only thing I could do in that situation—I tried reasoning with him.
“You need to let go of me,” I told him softly, loosening my grip on his hand.
“No!” he gritted out angrily.
“Listen to me,” I said as he reached out with his other hand, expecting me to grab it with my free one. “You need to find Ulrus and Nick and tell them what happened. It’s very important that they learn about the So’oks,” I insisted, wanting him to understand the danger the entire planet was now in now that the enemy had found it.
Avu’s voice cracked as he spoke. “I can’t do thisss alone.”
I could see the fear in his gaze, how lost he was without an adult to guide him.
He was almost as tall as I was, which made it easy to forget just how young he was. Maybe if I could get rid of the backpack, there might have been a chance of getting out of this mess, but without a knife, it was impossible.
“Come on! Don’t give up on me,” he muttered.
I wanted to tell him that he would be fine, that Ulrus and Nick would take care of him, but growls followed by shouting from nearby made his eyes go wide with fear.
“Oh, no. A brusssk,” Avu murmured as he grabbed my right hand with his other one and pulled with all his strength.
But it wasn’t enough to pull me up the cliff.