The familiar tickle at the back of Nala’s throat told her to start swallowing now lest she be overwhelmed. Indel reached the height of his release finally, shooting his seed into Nala’s mouth.

This wasn’t the time for it, but it’d become a matter of life and death; Indel couldn’t quiet.

Nala waited, the member hardly shrunk this time. The coaxing was faster at least. No sooner had she taken Indel from her mouth that she saw the penis fill and jut out.

“It is unmanageable now!” Nala complained. “The more I give you release, the faster your excitement comes.” She met eyes with Indel, genuinely pensive. “Mana, I cannot—I cannot swallow anymore, and we do not have the time. I must dig more.”

While before, Indel could move about, now he could hardly relax his muscles enough. Even the rock he clutched was more for lack of body control and not because he favored it.

Nala looked the dirt over.

“We should spill it. We should spill it,” she repeated to herself, looking for a good area.

“No,” Indel grunted. “No.”

Determined to ignore him, Nala set about finding a good enough place. It would be quite a lot but at least it was coming quickly. The old ways of never leaving seed on the ground be damned. They couldn’t run anymore.

“No!” The shout might have come about more out of anguish than protest.

“Blast you and your old beliefs,” Nala lamented. “We must.”

“Too sweet,” Indel said, his body twitching. “Animals come. Too close to the cave. You’ll doom my kind. We need the caves.”

Their eyes met and Nala found no help there. She wasn’t familiar enough with mating to know anything beyond what she could surmise on her own. She did know this rule, however. Not that it mattered as the force needed to coax required a mouth if not mating itself. But even Summoners gathered in a clutch and abandoned that part of the forest after the season faded. And wherever they mated, they would not return to that area for multiple seasons. Indel could very well be speaking the truth; spilling his seed might attract predators of sorts.

“No,” Indel pleaded again. Rock in his grip, he raised his trembling hand toward the mountain. “We move.”

“We cannot move. Not if it must be all three of us.”

Nala looked over her shoulder to Dilen’s figure not too far from them. The Leveler had witnessed it all—their short coupling. A time or two he’d stiffened in reaction. That didn’t matter. Each time Nala told herself it was for her king, it became easier. But damn this Leveler.

“He cannot speak now, Mana. We must leave him. Smith cannot ride sloths well but if he comes with one of his Earther vehicles, he’ll overtake us in no time. We must go.”

Body tensed as if a sharp pain had shot through him, Indel muttered through tight lips. “Heal.”

Nala watched him, her hearts aching in response to his obvious suffering.

“Heal. Warrior stage will heal. Everything returns.” Even saying that much was a struggle.

Looking over her shoulder at Dilen, Nala processed the words. Warrior stage.

Nala knelt up as it occurred to her. Much like the day before when the Leveler shifted to a higher stage, he could shift back to the first. “Do you mean all his bits will return when he completes the cycle?”

Nodding fervently, Indel grunted. “Yes. Everything.”

Thoughts of her own severed tail filled Nala’s head though briefly. Leaving Dilen was no longer something to consider, but neither was that leg with the Earther device.

Nala decided on her old plan. “Very well, Mana. I must leave you two here and fetch your people.” When no grunt or yells came, she took it as a sign of agreement.

Indel caught her arm before she could stand. “Don’t...”

The grip was strong and seemed one the Leveler King was determined to loosen with little success.

“Stay.”

The words confused Nala all the more because she was uncertain if they should fit together or apart. Apart...would mean sharing Indel’s company longer. It was not an awful thought, in fact, her hearts fluttered in response.

Loosening Indel’s grip for him, Nala interlocked their three fingers, her hearts slowing.

The taste of Indel’s seed still in her mouth, Nala put their foreheads together and whispered, “If I could remain by your side, Mana....”

“No.” Indel tightened his hold, stifling a groan.

That was one word that left no confusion. In the distance Dilen watched them. Nala feared finding what his gaze held. Time was of the essence. And Nala had wasted it making such a foolish plea.

“Leave...and run,” Indel whispered. “Your tail, Na’am. They cannot see it.”

Two suns shown high above, beating down on the one Summoner with her Leveler charges. Their outcome for the day was uncertain, yet despite the harsh suns, Nala felt cold.

“Mana....” The rejection was something she should have expected. Nala wanted to laugh off her moment of weakness in thinking Indel had wanted to keep her close. “I can...I can wait until the mating season is over. I can come here again.”

A shriek left Indel’s throat as he pulled away. “Don’t....” He crouched up as he struggled to speak. “Don’t....”

He resembled a boli flower closing up at night.

“Your tail....”

Nala watched him for a moment and then remembered herself. It was enough now and there was no sense coming so far for nothing.

If there was one thing Summoners knew, it was how to dig. She’d burrowed several holes thus far, all the way down to where the soil was soft. In her haste she could only make six, but should the worst happen and Smith find them, maybe he’d choose wrong and would take his time to dig them all up.

It took a lot of work to grab the rock from Indel’s hand.

Dilen started to suffer in the heat, his skin nearly brittle. The fear in his eyes as Nala approached was misplaced, however. Unlike Indel who seemed fit and ready to break the Leveler’s body, Nala’s intent was for the black beacon that would beckon Smith close.

She struck it, causing Dilen to wail. This time, too, it was to no avail. She decided to strike it just once more. Whether by luck or misfortune, the bone broke instead.

Nala might have apologized but she was too grateful. Several strikes against the flashing light yielded no results. She took the thing up and hurried to the sloth. The well-trained animal could only return home on its own.

Sending Smith to her unguarded barn once more was the last thing she desired, but she saw no other alternative if she wanted to reach that cave in one piece.

“Come,” Nala cooed, willing herself to calm lest she make the beast uneasy. “Come, Betty. Come.”

Nala wasn’t sure where that foolish name came from, but she used it again and again to soothe the sloth to cooperate. As suspected, without other food to beguile the thing, it lapped at Nala’s hand but refused to eat the Earther device. She resolved to give up and turned to voice some apology to Dilen. The Leveler’s shriek spooked the sloth enough for it to toss back its head.

Nala slipped the strange beacon inside its mouth, keeping its head up to force it to swallow.

“Don’t fret. It’ll come out the other end soon enough,” she promised. “Now go. Return home.”

A stern slap on the beast’s rump sent it charging. Its six legs kicked up dirt when it picked up speed.

Alone without a saddle or some nonsense like that, sloths were rather quick.

That might buy them some time.

Nala refilled the holes, careful to make them look identical in length and size. Because Indel remained crouched up, it was easier to put him inside.

Dilen struggled but not for long. Tossing him in the same hole as Indel wasn’t an option but Nala was half tempted to put him with the king to straighten him out.

When the holes were all filled, each identical with an iltus reed shoved in to provide a means to breathe, Nala gathered up one of Indel’s robes which she hoped other Levelers would recognize and thus not kill her on the spot.

She tied it around her waist and set off toward the mountain. The caves weren’t that far off.

Walking into a clutch of Levelers was the least wise decision she’d ever made. She hadn’t traveled far when she spotted four stage one, warrior Levelers, ushering soft skin stage three females along. There might have been some stage three males as well, but as they guarded from themselves rather poorly from the suns with large leaves, it was hard to see.

Hidden behind several great boulders high up, Nala looked down at them. She was so close. Those Levelers could carry Indel the rest of the way. Never mind Dilen, who had accused her of murder.

The distant red spoke of the Levelers’ migration. Leveler after Leveler gathered, moving in a large horde—all heading this way. Nala wondered for a moment if these few below her ledge had not become lost or separated somehow. She had to hurry otherwise they would leave to catch up with the others.

These rocks beside her, although firmly in the ground, could move if she’d tried.

Being fearful was foolish. She should run down there and show herself. Perhaps it would be all right for a moment. The sight of a Summoner, a lone female Summoner might make them curious. Or...playful. Images flashed of them making sport of rendering her came and went.

Everything inside her said it was a chance worth taking but instead, she inched between two boulders, pressing her back against one, her feet against the other.

A boulder loosened and went crashing down the slope.

“Blast!” Nala shouted out but calmed with relief as it missed a third stage female by fractions.

The stage one Levelers rushed together, chorusing, “Earther! Did you hear that Earther?”

“I heard her. Send word to the caves. You two follow. Keep your claws at the ready. We must fight.”

“There’s no fight left,” another one said. “Without a king—”

“Keep your tongues! We’ll fight.”

“We should hide.”

“Like boneless Summoners? Better to die in a fight!”

“Quiet!” one shrieked. When they fell silent, he said, “Quiet. I smell something strange. A...A Summoner.”

“Then leave it. This is no time for a romp.”

They turned to search no further but, instead, walk on. Panicked, Nala grabbed a stick and threw it. She threw several more to no avail. Finally, she set herself between two more boulders and shoved one down.

Nala wasn’t sure she’d gotten their attention. She wasn’t sure if she’d perhaps struck one of them. She only set her feet on the ground and ran. Summoners weren’t apt for fighting, and running without a tail was challenge enough, but she ran.

Fine voices gaining speed told her she’d at least gotten some form of help.

“Earther! Halt. Earthers have come!”

With each shaky step Nala took, she saw it better and better; a huge tank: the war machines.

“Smith....”

Smith was already here.