“Foolish, Summoner! You blasted Summoner!” Indel wailed. “You foolish, foolish whelp!”

Nala feigned sleep even now. The king and his companion had been rather noisy all night.

Now Indel called her—but not with a gentle name.

“Summoner, please. I will not hold much longer.”

Nala opened her eyes with the intent to witness them. Would Indel’s lustful gaze seem fuller?

Indel, his feet braced against the other Leveler’s shoulders, held the ends of the rope with both hands.

“Summoner,” Indel called out. “The rope will break. If you have a weapon of any kind, I am in need!”

No sooner had he said it, the rope, Nala’s former belt, split.

The new Leveler flopped over onto her—his hands and knees rather than lying. It was a male. All but too apparent now with the exoskeleton gone. His back still bruised and raw, he dragged himself to his feet and hobbled out.

“Blast!” Indel growled, turning on his belly to crawl.

Each vocal complaint spoke volumes of his suffering.

The speed with which Indel scurried along the ground left Nala in a state of shock. Curiosity and awe fueled her to rush to the doorway and peer out into the dim light of morning.

Indel caught one of the stones by the fence, so big it was nearly the size of his head. He hurtled it without effort, striking the other Leveler in the back.

A growl ripped from the back of Indel’s throat as he stood, hobbled over to the fallen Leveler, grabbed the rock, and slammed it into his foe’s back, again and again.

“Do you think I’m King because I have the biggest penis! Should you want to kill me—” he slammed the rock down, a grunt coming from the beaten creature. “You do it face—” slam. “To face!”

The second Leveler finally stopped moving. He didn’t even twitch.

Blood-stained rock in hand, Indel watched the listless figure, his body heaving and huffing.

A moment later, Indel lost all power and crumbled to the ground. Whatever bit of energy he had left went into those blows.

Nala thought to inquire what was happening but something else drew her focus; the suns were climbing. Smith would come.

“Na’am...” Indel whispered. The way his head bobbed spoke of fatigue. “I thought he’d caught you somehow. Or that I’d slept and you...and you...”

Each step Nala took closer, dread choked her.

“And I thought,” Indel whispered. “Curse you, Summoner. I worried for you.”

Worried? Nala took the scene in. All through the night, the rough cries and grunts she’d heard in and out of her night’s rest became vivid—they’d fought. And the two levelers had fought to a state of exhaustion.

Time wasn’t a luxury they could afford. Rather than wait for Smith to arrive and discover his coveted Leveler very dead, Nala rushed back into the barn. She retrieved the coverings from the day before and cast them over Indel’s twitching body.

“Dilen,” Indel said. “We must bring Dilen. We cannot leave him.”

Nala prepared the sloth as fast as she could. It was when she led it to Indel that she noticed that the second Leveler, despite his chest baring the markings of several blows by the rock, still drew breaths. He was alive.

“We must bring him,” Indel said, even as Nala covered his head and attached the ends to the sloth for carrying. She then yanked on the rope, hoisting him up on the kneeling beast—supplies would go on one side, Indel on the other. “The Earthers...”

“Do not worry,” Nala struggled to say. “There is a river near. We can put him—”

“No.” The robes muffled Indel’s voice but he continued, “We must bring him with us. We must. Please, Nala, I beg.”

Nala paused in her task.

“Please. He was with me in my travel. His armor helped him survive but he knew I could not. He did not greet me when he saw me. He looked fearful. We must bring him. We cannot leave him to tell the Earthers of our structure. We cannot leave him to...to come back for you when I’m gone,” Indel whispered. “Please. He is the one with the nectar. Please. I ask you only this.”

But this was asking a lot.

“Mana...” Nala began, cursing herself for still using that foolish word.

“Na’am, please.”

The answer was soothing enough but Nala had a bigger problem.

“The sloths look big, it is true. But they slow with more weight. It cannot carry even the two of us. This Leveler does not stir. I cannot carry the two of you on the sloth. The sun cannot catch you directly.”

All was quiet for a long while until Indel said, “If you wish to survive another cycle, you know that we must find a way.”

Visions and thoughts of a near dead Leveler climbing from the river tonight or the next night plagued her.

Even if Nala could drag him, she had yet another concern.

“What if he awakens as we move? What can I do then?”

“The same thing you can do now,” Indel muttered, “nothing.”

Nothing. That soft word was the hardest threat she’d ever suffered.

“But would you rather he awaken with me or with you alone?”

The suns were coming, and Smith would come as well. There was no time to hide the Leveler. Losing the goats was bad, losing a specimen along with it was life-threatening.

They had to leave, and they had to leave now. Nala had seen Earthers tie up more than a few Summoner specimens. She hadn’t understood it all at the time, but she’d seen it. She’d even fetched vines for them for that purpose until she’d noticed the pattern. Whatever Summoner they took, never returned.

She risked leaving the Levelers for a moment. Some vines were close enough that she could get them. It was a waste of time to try but she could think of no other way to bring the extra body.

Young, wet vines were the first ones she caught when she hopped up by a tree. If she’d had her tail, she could jump higher.

A long sting of failures come and went before she gave up on tying the Leveler up.

She could make a loop however, and she dragged it by Dilen’s ankle, the back-toe anchoring it in place—right above a strange black marking.

The other supplies from the day before were still unpacked and she slung them onto the sloth but not before using the red dirt below her feet to carve out a message on the door with her finger.

Smith might wait a while if he came should a message be there.

“Be back soon.”