To a native village

After at least an hour, as Tau-Ceti was now high up in the morning sky, the troop slowed. Through the trees, Calvo saw a curl of smoke and a few tents. The smell of cooking food came to his nose, and he was suddenly starving. The native men had kept him hydrated with occasional water breaks. At the pace they kept through the woods, they had traveled perhaps three or four miles. Calvo's prison-softened body was having a hard time adjusting to as much walking and running as he'd done the last couple days. His muscles were stiff and sore by the time they walked into the clearing in the middle of the vilage.

With a warrior on each arm, the leader of the group shouted in a stentorian voice that could be heard throughout the cluster of hovels and tents. Everyone stopped what they were doing and gathered around the hunting party with its prisoner. There looked to be fifty or more individuals.

Soon, several elderly aliens came out of various dwellings. They looked similar to human oldsters, hunched and wrinkled, but with spotty blue skin. These walked to the front of the assembled villagers. Several young warriors and maidens grabbed stools, and the old aliens sat down. Once they were all seated, the elder in the middle of the group, a weathered woman with grey hair down her crest and back and a bit of a wisp of blue-grey beard, said something in their sing-songy gibberish.

The leader of the hunting party stepped forward and spoke to the old woman at length, pointing often to Calvo. The woman replied, and the two conversed for several minutes, with other elders piping up as various points. At one point, the main elder had said something and then pointed to one side of the village. Calvo saw a large round metal container, perhaps one of the food shipment barrels used by the prison. Several big natives started hauling it over to the fire, making sure it was stable, and several women grabbed water urns and poured them into the vat. The prisoner started sweating profusely

During the speeches, Calvo hadn't seen the girl he'd fucked the previous night, so he silently prayed to Murphy to keep it that way. Perhaps as retribution for past sins, or simply because Murphy is capricious, during a break in the discussion, she walked out in the empty space afforded by the crowd and took a haughty stance. Calvo thought she looked very sexy and exotic, standing with her fists on her hips, scowling between the party leader and the elder.